Access into and out of the southern Peninsula

The Scenic South received the following email from a resident in the South Peninsula, frustrated by the build-up of traffic on the access roads to Sun Valley, Fish Hoek, Kommetjie and surrounds. We asked our councillors to respond.

Can someone please tell me when the municipality and council are actually going to do something about the roads and lack of access into and out of the south peninsula (Sun Valley, Fish Hoek, Kommetjie)? The traffic is horrendous and in the case of emergency, people cannot get to False Bay Hospital fast enough. This road situation is a death sentence waiting to happen, and that is hugely concerning for the residents such as myself.

I sit on Ou Kaapse Weg for up to 30 minutes before I get to the traffic lights at Longbeach Mall, just so I can get to my house, which is not even five minutes away. What also upsets many of us is that the reserve can be bought up for more houses, which will accommodate more people who will clog up the traffic even more, but, nothing can be done about creating more roads in and out of the deep south.

2 Comment

Viv, July 31, 2015 at 12:56 pm

There is not much anyone can do about access and egress to and from the far south.

It is a geographical reality that we are virtually isolated. Living here is a choice.

What we are doing is upgrading Ou Kaapse Weg from Buhler Louw Drive to the 4 way intersection on Kommetjie Rd . We are also widening the Kommetjie Rd with the provision of 2 more lanes from 4 way to, in the first phase, 200 mt from Capri intersection. The next phase is from there to the new Rd , Houmous Rd, at Fish Eagle Park.

This is will decongest the intersection and Kommetjie Rd especially at peak times. The technical design work is underway.

An updated traffic study is also underway as we speak.

In case of emergency there is access to helicopter medical services if required. This has been available to our community for many years and in fact is used.

There has been no reserve land sold for housing development. I am unaware of what this relates to.

Unfortunately, road improvements are merely the plaster on the bleeding Peninsula wound and do not treat the cause of the problem by any stretch of the imagination. The problem is that the Far South Peninsula’s carrying capacity has been breached. The problem is that the City continues to give planning permission for even more housing and industrial developments. There are also 2000 or so proclaimed plots yet to be developed all over the Far South Peninsula. These will all add to the existing traffic pressures of our already congested roads.

What the City is not doing is developing a strategic and holistic development plan for the Far South Peninsula and carrying out a Strategic Environmental Analysis of this relatively small piece of land surrounded by mountains, ocean, National Park, and World Heritage sites.

I am sure reserve/national park land has not been sold for housing or other developments, but the urban edge has been encroached on many occasions by developments that received planning permission from the City.

These issues have been raised on many occasion by the different organisations working in the Far South, but so far we have never received a satisfactory answer.